Among the original Apes movies, only this one had true time travel; the others involved only relativistic time dilation, which (as even Dr. Milo knows) is technically not time travel. But in this one, Milo, Cornelius, and Zira are blown back to the time of the original astronauts (given the violence of the explosion, we’re going to call it a time rift) and are persecuted in a 70s made-for-TV manner.

Observer Warren Lasky is aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz when a storm takes the carrier back to the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Should they prevent the attack? What will be the consequences of saving a politician who may become Roosevelt’s running mate? Then the ship is returned to the present before they can do anything vaguely cool.